












*^ -^^^ 




■3 >.- 











.^' 







THE BOUNDARIES 



OF THE 



Louisiana Purchase 



A historical study 



By LOUIS HOUCK 



PHILLIP ROEDER S BOOK STORE 
St. Louis, Mo. 



L S TAYLOR PRINTING CO - SAINT LOT'IS 

1901. 



V-"' 

v^^ 



THF LIBRARY OF 
Two Outfits RecEivEO 

NOV, 11 1901 

Copyright entrv 
CLASS a XX& No. 

cx>Fv a.' 



COPYRIGHT 

1901 

BY LOUIS HOUCK 



/^ 



The fact that much erroneous infor- 
mation in regard to the boundaries of 
the Louisiana Purchase has, during the 
last few years, been industriously cir- 
culated by the daily press and otherwise^ 
must be excuse for the publication of 
this study. 



nil the first article of the treaty of 
the I^ouisiana Purchase it is re- 
cited that "His Catholic Majesty 
promises and engages on his part to 
retrocede to the French Republic*^' '^ 
the colony or province of lyOiiisiana 
with the same extent that it now has in 
the hands of Spain, and that it had 
when France possessed it, and such as 
it should have after the treaties subse- 
quently entered into between Spain 
and other states," and the First Con- 
sul of the French Republic then makes 
the grant in these words, i. e., "de- 
siring to give to the United States a 
strong proof of his friendship, doth 
hereby cede to the United States in the 
name of the French Republic, for- 
ever and in full sovereignity, the said 
territory, with all its rights and ap- 
purtenances as fully and in the same 
manner as they had been acquired by 
the French Republic, in virtue of the 
above mentioned treaty concluded 
with his Catholic Majesty." No fur- 



ther description of the boundaries of 
the "colony or province of Louisiana' ' 
is given. It is transferred as the 
French Republic acquired it, i. e., 
"with the same extent that it now 
has in the hands of Spain and that it 
had when France possessed it, and 
such as it should be after the treaties 
subsequently entered into between 
Spain and other states. ' ' The transfer 
was not made by metes and bounds, 
because no one knew at that time the 
precise boundaries of the "colony or 
province of lyouisiana." The boun- 
daries of the colony or province were 
of undefined extent, so to say, political 
boundaries, boundaries liable to be 
expanded or contracted according to 
political exigencies. 

Undeniably the purchase involved 
the acquisition of well defined terri- 
torial rights as well as political rights 
and claims. With the purchase com- 
pleted we acquired that sphere of 
influence which France enjoyed on 
the North American continent by 
reason of the occupancy of the valley 
of the St. I^awrence and the Great 
6 



Lakes, and which France retained 
after the treaty of 1763, as well as all 
those territorial and political rights 
derived by the discovery of the Mis- 
sissippi and of Texas, and which had 
not been ceded to Great Britain. More 
than that, we also acquired the terri- 
tory of l/ouisiana '* with the same 
extent that it now has in the hands of 
Spain and such as it should be after 
the treaties subsequently entered into 
between Spain and other States" — \ 
that is, when Spain retroceded the 
province or colony to France. In j / 
other words, if during the dominion l'^ 
of Spain any portion of the ' ' colony / 
or province of Louisiana ' ' was lost, / 
France re -acquired the province or 
colony thus curtailed. But on the 
other hand it is equally clear, that if 
during the dominion of Spain any- 
thing was added to the colony or 
province either territorially or politi- 
cally, if vague and undefined French 
claims were enlarged, made certain 
and definite, the sphere of influence 
of the colony or province enlarged 
and broadened, thus territorially or 
7 



politically strengthening the colony or 
province, this acquisition, also inured 
to our benefit. 

Talleyrand said: "France in giving 
up Louisiana to the United States trans- 
ferred all rights over the colony which 
she had acquired from Spain. " (a) 

In order, therefore, to determine 
what were the boundaries of the 
IvOuisiana Purchase, it is equally im- 
portant to determine what were the 
boundaries territorially, and the poli- 
tical sphere of influence or right to 
expand when France ceded the colony 
or province to Spain, and what Spain 
added to or ceded away either terri- 
torially or politically pertaining to the 
colony or province, because as stated, 
if in an^^way the province was cur- 
tailed or in anyway the territorial or 
political rights of the province en- 
larged and made more certain or 
strengthened, these rights passed to 
the United States. 

That the United States acquired not 
only territorial rights, but also a sphere 

ia) Letter of Talleyrand to Gen. Armstrong:, Dec. 

31, 1804. 



of influence or right to expansion is 
shown clearly in a letter written by 
Mr. Livingston to Mr. Madison, Sec- 
retary of State of the United States, 
from Paris on May 20, 1803. In this 
letter Mr. Livingston says: 

"I called this morning on Mr. Mar- 
bois for a further explanation of this 
subject (the cession of Louisiana) and 
to remind him of his having told me 
that Mobile made a part of the ces- 
sion. He told me that he had no 
precise idea on the subject, but that 
he knew it to be a historical fact, and 
on that he had formed his opinion. I 
asked him what orders had been given 
to the Prefect, that was to take pos- 
session, or what orders had been 
given by Spain as to the boundary in 
ceding it. He assured me that he did 
not knovv^ but that he v/ould make 
the inquiry and let me know. At four 
o'clock I called for Mr. Monroe to 
take him to the minister for foreign 
affairs, but he was prevented from 
accompanying me. I asked the min- 
ister what were the last bounds of the 
territor}^ ceded to us; he said he did 
9 



not know; we must take it as they 
had received it; I asked him how 
Spain meant to give that possession ; 
he said according to the words of the 
treaty; but where did 3^ou mean to 
take? I do not know. Then you 
mean that we shall construe it our 
own way? I can give you no direc- 
tion ; you have made a noble bargain 
for yourselves and I suppose you will 
make the most of it. " 

Hence Benton in his speech in re- 
ply to Dickerson truly said, that when 
the United States purchased I^ouisiana 
they acquired ' ' with it an open ques - 
tion of boundaries for that vavSt pro- 
vince." (a) 

When the French negotiator pointed 
out to Napoleon the uncertainty of the 
boundary he said ' ' that if obscurity 
did not already exist it would perhaps 
be good policy to put one there." (d) 

Gallatin wrote Jefferson August 18, 
1803, that our minister in England, 
Hon. Rufus King, advised him that 

(a) Benton's Thirty Years in the United States 
Senate, Vol. 1, p. 51. 

ib) Marbois' Louisiana, p. 286. 

10 



the boundaries of I^ouisiana * ' had 
never been settled by any treaty." (a) 

In 1808, "An Account of I^ouis- 
iana, being an abstract of Documents 
in the offices of the Department of 
State," was published anonymously, 
and in this account it is said "of the 
province of lyouisiana no general map 
sufficiently correct to be depended up - 
on has been published, nor has any yet 
been procured from a private source. 
It is indeed probable that surveys 
have never been made on so exten- 
sive a scale as to afford the means of 
la3ang down the various regions of 
country which in some of it appear 
to have been but imperfectly ex- 
plored." id) 

And Colonel Don Antonia de Alcedo 
in his "Geographical and Historical 
Dictionar}^ of the West Indies of 
America," published by permission of 
the Spanish Government in Madrid in 
1786, says that the "limits of the 
province of Louisiana have never 
been preciselj^ fixed." 

(a) Writings of Gallatin. Vol. 1, p. 143. 

(b) Page 1. 

11 



^ Says McMasters, "on the rude maps 

of the closing da3^s of the seventeenth 
century I^ouisiana, therefore, extends 
from the Rio Grande to the Mobile, 
from the Gulf to the country beyond 
the sources of the Mississippi River, 
from the Smoky Mountains to the un - 
known regions of the West." {a) 

Dii Pratz, who wrote his "History 
of Louisiana" before the close of the 
French -English wars, thus defines the 
boundaries: "lyouisiana is that part 
of North America which is bounded 
on the south by the Gulf of Mexico, 
on the east by Carolina, an English 
colony, and by a part of Canada; on 
the Vv^est by New Mexico, and on the 
north in part b3'' Canada, in part it 
extends without assignable bounds to 
the terra incognita adjoining Hudson 
Bay." {b) 

Vague and contradictory ideas pre- 
vailed as to the boundaries of the 
"colony and province" because the 
territory was not of sufficient value or 

(a) Hist, of the People of the United States, Vol. 3, 
p. 32. 

{b) Du Pratz' Hist, of Louisaua, Vol. 1, p. 200, I^on- 
dou Kdition, 1763. 

12 



well enough known to warrant a con- 
troversy, nor was it the policy of any 
of the powers interested in this terri- 
tory to make any concession or defi- 
nite agreement as to the boundaries. 

The question of the extent of the 
''colony or province of lyouisiana" 
was left open and finally was solved 
and settled by us as dictated by our 
interest as a political and not as an 
academic question. 

The French had no idea of curtail- 
ing the limits of their vast claims on 
the North American continent. They 
had no fixed theories about water 
sheds and natural and geographical 
boundaries. They claimed everything 
to the" Western Sea' ' precisely as their 
English neighbors on this continent. 

The doctrine of European rights to 
uncivilized countries derived from dis - 
covery and possession is not reducible 
and never has been reduced to fixed 
rules, {a) 

French statesmen well understood 
this. In 1715, Raudot, who under 
Pontchartrain was in charge of French 

(a) Writings of Gallatin, Vol. 1, p. 241. 
13 



colonial affairs, requested De L'Isle, 
the geographer, to remove the dots 
from his map that marked the limits 
of Louisiana "as the Court wishes it 
left undefined, and does not want 
French maps to be quoted by foreign 
nations against us." (a) 

The assertion of Marbois : ' ' The 
shores of the Western Ocean were 
certainly not comprised in the ces- 
sion," (b) would have been emphati- 
cally repudiated by Pontchartrain. 
The statement is entitled to little con - 
sideration, because it is contradicted 
by the entire colonial policy and claims 
of France in North America. 

Nor were the statesmen of our coun- 
try less alive, than the statesmen of 
France, to save the territorial rights 
and to protect the sphere of political 
influence we secured by the acquisi- 
tion of the '* colony or province of 
Louisiana." So cautious was the 
United States Senate, that the fifth ar- 
ticle of the treaty of 1803 with Great 
Britain for adjusting our northern 

(a) Winsor's Mississippi Basin, p. 86. 

(b) Marbois' Louisiana, p. 286. 

14 



boundary was rejected, because it was 
feared it would curtail our rights ac- 
quired from France by the Louisiana 
Purchase. 

** It happened," says Benton, " in 
the very time we were signing a treaty 
in Paris for the acquisition of lyouisi- 
ana that we were signing another in 
London for the adjustment of the 
boundary line between the Northwest 
possessions of the United States and 
the King of Great Britain. The ne- 
gotiators of each were ignorant of 
what the other had done, and on re- 
mitting the two treaties to the Senate 
of the United States for ratification, 
that for the purchase of Louisiana was 
ratified without restriction ; the other 
with the exception of the fifth article. 
It was this article which adjusted the 
boundary between the United States 
and Great Britain from the Lake of 
the Woods to the head of the Missis - 
sippi, and the Senate refused to ratify 
because by a possibility it might 
jeopardize the northern boundary of 
Louisiana." England rejected the 
treaty as amended. 
15 



If the views of the limited bound- 
aries of the Louisiana Purchase that 
now are advocated by some had de- 
tained at that time the United States 
would not have rejected the fifth arti- 
cle of the treaty, but ratified the same, 
and in this way a large portion of the 
territor}^ that now constitutes the states 
of Minnesota, North Dakota and Mod - 
tana undoubtedly lost to the United 
States. 

After the sale of the "colony and 
province of Louisiana" to the United 
States the boundaries of the colony 
sold became a matter of indifference 
to France, but Spain as well as Great 
Britain were concerned at the time in 
determining what the boundaries of 
Louisiana were. It was the policy of 
both of these nations to endeavor to 
curtail and limit the actual territorial 
boundaries of the "province or colo- 
ny" and the historical right of France 
to expand to the Western Sea. a right 
which we acquired by virtue of this 
purchase. Nothing w^ould have better 
served the diplomats of Europe than 
the arguments advanced by some of 
16 



our writers holding quasi -governmen- 
tal positions or some of the ill-con- 
sidered official maps attempting to 
show the extent of the lyouisiana 
Purchase. Such maps published in 
1805 would have given England the 
northwest Pacific coast and Texas to 
Spain. 

Without going into every detail let 
us now examine what were the terri- 
torial limits of the "colony or province 
of Louisiana": first, on the east; 
second, on the southwest; third, on 
the north; and fourth, what were the 
western territorial limits and the 
political sphere of influence belong- 
ing to this "colony or province", or 
right of the Louisiana hinterland to 
expand to the Western Ocean. 



17 



he Mississippi from the 31st de- 
gree parallel to its source was 
the eastern boundary of the 
** province or colony of I^ouisiana". 
The 31st parallel from the Mississippi 
to the Apalachicola, and down that 
stream to the Gulf, was considered by 
the United States, by France and Eng- 
land as the southeast boundary, but 
Spain claimed that the Iberville and 
lyakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain 
were the true dividing line between 
Louisiana and the Floridas. Histori- 
cally, undoubtedly the boundary of 
the "colony or province of Louisiana' ' 
extended as far east as Pensacola. The 
principal seat of the colony or pro- 
vince was established by Iberville on 
the western side of the river Mobile, 
not far from the spot where now stands 
the city of Mobile, and there remained 
until Bienville in 1723 laid out the city 
of New Orleans. 

Before the discovery of the mouth 
of the Mississippi and the voyages of 
18 



Iberville, the Spaniards claimed the 
whole circuit of the Gulf, but made 
no settlement — and only were aroused 
to action by the enterprise of the 
French, and then occupied the Bay of 
Pensacola, the best harbor on the Gulf. 
* * The barrier thus formed , ' ' says Pick - 
ett, ''made the dividing line between 
Florida and lyouisiana." (a) 

''All the French writers are agreed 
in fixing the Perdido to the east as the 
limits, and the Rio del Norte to the 
west," for lyOuisiana. (b) 

In a letter to Breckenridge dated 
August 12th, 1803, Jefferson claims 
the Rio Perdido between Mobile and 
Pensacola as the "ancient boundary 
of Louisiana," and Gallatin agreed 
with him. (c) 

Spain persistently for a time refused 
to admit the Perdido as the boundary 
line, and formed the territory, bound- 
ed on the north by the 31st degree, by 
the River Perdido on the east, the 
Pearl River on the west, and the Gulf 
of Mexico on the south, into a Spanish 

(a) Pickett's Hist, of Alabama. Vol. 1, p. 185. 
ib) Brackenridge's Views of lyOuisiana, p. 57. 
(c) Writings of Gallatin. Vol. 1, p. 150. 

19 



district. At the same time the United 
States insisted that the country should 
be surrendered as a part of the Louisi- 
ana Purchase, and that both the Baton 
Rouge and Mobile districts were in- 
cluded in the Louisiana cession. On 
the other hand, it was contended by- 
Spanish authorities that just before 
the Revolution she was engaged in a 
war with England and by conquest 
acquired the Baton Rouge district as 
well as Mobile, then being a part of 
West Florida, and that by the treaty of 
1783 Great Britain ceded this territory 
to her. 

For a time great excitement on ac- 
count of this controversy prevailed 
along the borders and border troubles 
were the order of the day. (a) 

In 1810 the Spaniards were expelled 
from Baton Rouge b}^ force, the place 
being taken by surprise and the 
Spanish Governor de Grandpre was 
killed. After this the Spaniards of 
this district retired to Pensacola. In 
1813 the United States became appre- 
hensive that the British forces might 

(a) Pickett's Hist, of Alabama, p. 203. 

20 



take possession of the Mobile District 
and forts and the whole district be- 
tween the Pearl and the Perdido and 
below the line of the 31st degree 
parallel was occupied by our Govern- 
ment as ceded to us under the I^ouisi- 
ana Purchase. General Wilkinson 
with 600 men of the third and seventh 
regiments, sailing from New Orleans 
in transport vessels commanded b}^ 
Commodore Shaw, provided with scal- 
ing ladders and every necessary equip- 
ment, landed in the Bay of Mobile, 
marched up to the town , took position 
in the rear of Fort Charlotte, and after 
some correspondence the Spanish 
Commandant, Captain Ca3^etano Perez, 
surrendered the fort, cannon and mili- 
tary stores to the United States, the 
commander of the United States forces 
agreeing to pay for the same, and also 
retired to Pensacola. The stars and 
stripes were hoisted on the ramparts 
of Fort Charlotte, and General Wilkin- 
son then marched to the Rio Perdido 
and established a stockade fort there. 
That the River Perdido formed the 
eastern boundary of lyouisiana has 
21 



also been decided in a number of 
cases by the Supreme Court of the 
United States, (a) 

Thus finally by virtue of the Louisi- 
y ana Purchase the southern portions of 
Mississippi and Alabama were added 
to the United States, fdj and to that 
extent Mississippi and Alabama are 
lyouisiana Purchase States. 

{a) See opinion of Chief Justice Marshall in 
Foster v, Neilson, 2 Peters, 307 affirmed in Garcia, 
vs. Lee, 12 Peters, page 520— Chief Justice Taney, 
delivering opinion of Court. 

(^>) Pickett's Hist, of Alabama, Vol. 2, p. 248. 



22 



he claim of France to Texas as a 

part of lyouisiana was founded 

on the discovery of LaSalle and 

on the French establishments of the 

Mississippi being prior to those of 

Spain east of the Rio del Norte, (a) 

When lyaSalle established his post 
on Matagorda Bay, the nearest Spanish 
settlement was on the Panuco, and the 
natural half-way boundary of the 
unoccupied territory was the Rio 
Bravo, (l)) 

Bancroft says : ' 'Louisiana was held 
by the French to extend to the 
River del Norte. The boundary line 
of French pretensions, in disregard of 
the claims of Spain, crossed the Rocky 
Mountains and sought its termination 
in the Gulf of California." (c) 

Says Bancroft: "Ascending the 
Lavaca, a small stream at the west of 
the bay, LaSalle selected a site on the 

{a) Writings of Gallatin, Vol. 1, p. 241. 
ib) Jefferson's letter to Mellish, Dec. 31, 1816. 
(c) Bancroft's Hist, of the United States, Vol. 2, 
Chap. 14, p. 214, Author's last revision, 

23 



open ground for the establishment of 
a fortified post. The gentle slope 
which he named St. Louis showed to- 
wards the west and southwest a 
boundlesb landscape, verdant with 
luxuriant grasses and dotted with 
groves of forest trees ; south and east 
was the Bay of Matagorda skirted with 
prairies. The waters which abounded 
in fish attracted flocks of wild fovvd; 
the fields were alive with deer and 
bison and wild turkeys, and the dead- 
ly rattle -snake, bright inhabitant of 
the meadows. There under the suns 
of June with timber felled in an in- 
land grove and dragged for a league 
over the prairie grass the colonists 
prepared to build a shelter, LaSalle 
being the architect and himself mark- 
ing the beams, the tenons and mor- 
tises. With parts of the wreck 
brought up on canoes a second house 
was framed, and of each the roof was 
covered with buffalo skins. Thus 
France took possession of Texas ; her 
arms carved on its trees, and by no 
24 



treaty or public document or map did 
she give up her right to the province 
until she resigned the whole of Louisi- 
ana to Spain." (a) 

lyaHarpe made a second attempt to 
plant a colony on the Bay of Mata- 
gorda, but this stimulated the Spani- 
ards to the occupation of the country 
by the establishments from time to 
time ot several forts. 

The French ever regarded the mouth 
of del Norte as the western limit of 
lyouisiana on the Gulf of Mexico. An 
English geography (Poples' map) 
recognized the claim. 

When in 1819 Don I^ouis de Onis 
was commissioned by Spain to settle 
the boundary dispute of lyouisiana, the 
United States contended that Texas 
was a part of I^ouisiana, and the con- 
tention was based on the discovery of 
the Mississippi throughout its whole 
length in 1682 by LaSalle; the land- 
ing of lyaSalle in Matagorda Bay in 
1685; the grant of Louis XIV. to 
Crozat; a memoir said to have been 

(«) Bancroft's Hist, of the United vStates, Vol. 2. 
p. 172, Author's last revision. 

25 



written by Vergennes in the reign of 
L,ouis XVI. ; a chart of I^ouisiana by 
lyOpez publishsd in 1762; a map of 
Dely'Isle published in 1782; a map 
published at Nurenburg in 1712; an 
"Atlas Geographicus" published in 
London in 1717; an official British 
map published in 1755; Narratives of 
Hennepin, Tonty and Joutel; letter of 
lyaHarpe dated July 8, 1719; an order 
from Bienville to I^aHarpe dated 
August 12, 1771; and the geographi- 
cal work of Alcedo, already referred 
to, published in Spain, (a) 

Falconer attempts to throw discredit 
on this formidable array of authorities 
by claiming that they are mostly ir- 
relevent, the maps unofficial, and that 
both the map-makers of London and 
Nurenberg must be put out of Court ; 
but it should be remembered that he 
is arguing the British side in this con - 
troversy as to the Louisiana boundary. 
On an array of authorities far less de- 
cisive and clear Great Britain secured 
great and important territories. 

(a) See Falconer on the Mississippi and Oregon, 
p. 41, and where authorities are set out as above. 

26 



How active the French were in as- 
serting claim to Texas as a part of 
Louisiana is shown by the fact that 
Iberville sent out exploring parties 
westward feeble as the French colonies 
were. In 1716 Cadillac sent St. 
Dennis to oppose the Spaniards in an 
attempt to establish themselves at 
Nachitoches. (a) 

In 1718 St. Dennis with another ex- 
pedition penetrated as far south as the 
Presidio of St. John the Baptist on the 
Rio del Norte. A French fort was 
established at Nachitoches in 1730, 
St. Dennis acting as commandant, (d) 
In 1720 LaHarpe built a fort in lati- 
tude 35, 55, about 250 miles from 
Nachitoches, which he called St. Louis 
del Carlorette, and the French remain- 
ed in possession until the country was 
transferred to Spain, (c) From this 
fort lyaHarpe explored the countr}^ to 
the Arkansas, examined the sources 
of the Washita, passed the high moun- 

(a) Gayarres' Hist, of Louisiana, p. 166. 

id) Gayarres' Hist, of Louisiana, p. 418: Du Pratz, 
Vol. 1, p. 11. 

(f) Brackenridge's Views of Louisiana, p. 56. 

27 



tains, which divided the waters of the 
Washita from the Arkansas, and 
descended that river to the Missis- 
sippi, (a) 

It must, however, not be supposed 
that the Spaniards were idle. They 
also established forts and posts, notably 
San Antonio de Bexar. The Spanish 
Governor ordered LaHarpe to retire 
from Texas, but I^aHarpe replied that 
he was astonished at the pretensions 
of the Spanish Governor, considering 
that the French had always looked 
upon Texas as a part of I^ouisiana, 
since lyaSalle had taken possession of 
that country, and which still retained 
his mortal remains. He added that the 
French Government could not admit 
that the pretensions of Spain could 
legitimately go beyond the Rio Bravo. 
The French Government supported 
LaHarpe in the position he had taken, 
and he was ordered to take possession 
of the Bay of St. Bernard. 

Gayarre says: **It is not the less 
remembered that France called in 

((/) Brackenridge's Views of Louisiana, p. 58, 
28 



question rights which Spain pretended 
with so much tenacity to have to 
Texas, (a) 

Although the claims of the United 
States were abandoned by the Florida 
treaty signed at Washington on the 
22nd day of February, 1819, this in 
no wise ought to be taken as evidence 
that Texas was not truly a part of the 
* 'colony or province of Louisiana". 
It should rather be considered as dic- 
tated by the exigencies of the hour. 
Says President Monroe: "For the 
territory ceded by Spain other territory 
of great value (Texas to which our 
claim was believed to be well founded) 
was ceded by the United States, and 
in a quarter more interesting to 
her." (d) 

But Jefferson was inflexibly opposed 
to this treaty, (c) So also Jackson, 
but he yielded to the arguments of 
Monroe, and wrote that ''for the 
present we ought to be contented 
with the Floridas." (d) Benton was 

in) Hist, of T^ouisiana, p. 260; See also Falconer, 
P, 41. 

(b) Message of President Monroe, Dec. 7, 1S19. 

(c) Benton's Thirty Years, Vol. 1, p. 16. 

id) See Senton's Thirty Years, Vol. 1, p. 16. 

29 



"shocked" by this treaty, because the 
new boundary, "besides cutting off 
I^ouisiana, dismembered the valle}^ of 
the Mississippi, mutilated two of its 
noblest rivers, brought foreign domin- 
ion (and it non- slave holding) to the 
neighborhood of New Orleans, and 
established a wilderness barrier be- 
tween Missouri and New Mexico to 
interrupt their trade, separate their 
inhabitants and shelter the wild Indian 
depredators upon the lives and prop- 
erty of all who undertook to pass 
from one to the other." (a) 

Chevalier de Onis claimed the praise 
of his nation for having exchanged 
the small and comparatively unimpor- 
tant province of Florida for the rich 
and productive territory of Texas, 
thus admitting that Texas constituted 
truly a part of the Louisiana Purchase. 
But Falconer says that Chevalier de 
Onis did not manage the case of Spain 
well, and that "a more gross case of 
mismanagement and ignorant diplom - 
acy was never exhibited." 

(a) Benton's Thirty Years, Vol. 1, p. 15. 
30 



By this treaty Spain ceded Florida 
and the United States relinquished all 
claims to territories west of the River 
Sabine and south of the upper parts of 
the Red and Arkansas rivers. It was 
agreed that a line drawn on the meri- 
dian from the source of the Arkansas 
northward to the 42nd parallel of lati- 
tude, thence along that parallel west- 
ward to the Pacific should form the 
northern boundary of the Spanish 
possessions and the southern bound- 
ary" of those of the United States in 
that quarter — "His Catholic Majesty 
ceding to the United States all his 
rights, claims, and pretensions to any 
territories north of said line". This 
line fixed definitely the south line of 
the Louisiana Purchase to the 
Pacific, {a) 

Although Texas was thus ceded 
away, subsequent events restored this 
portion of the "colony or province 
of lyouisiana" to the United States, 
(^) and hence it seems proper that 
Texas should be considered as one of 
the Louisiana Purchase states. 

(a) Greenhow's, p. 316. 

(b) See President Tjler's message to the Senate, 
1844, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, Vol. 4, 
p. 307. 

31 



nhe northern limits of Louisiana 
were never definitely determin- 
ed, (a) In 1717 the Illinois 
country was added to Louisiana, but 
it was uncertain whether this carried 
the line to the Wisconsin River, and 
it was a source of dispute between 
Vaudreuil, Governor of Canada, and 
Boisbriant, Local Governor of Ft. de 
Chartres, whether his jurisdiction ex- 
tended to the source of all the affluents 
of the Mississippi or not. (b) Some 
map makers included the basin of Lake 
Winipeg as in the Louisiana country. 
Hennepin's map of Louisiana extends 
the boundaries of Louisiana north of 
Lake Superior, {c) 

According to Du Pratz Louisiana on 
the north in part extends without any 
assignable bounds to the terraincog- 
nita adj oining to the Hudson's Bay. Tf^J 

(fl) Winsor's Miss. Basiu. p. 146. 
{b) Winsor's Miss. Basin, p. 148. 
(c) See map in Winsor's Cartier to Frontenac, 
p. 279. 
(rf) Du Pratz Hist, of IvOuisiana. Vol. 1, p. 199, 

32 



"However, "he says," we need not 
trouble ourselves concerning our in- 
terests in this very distant region. 
Many centuries must pass before we 
shall have penetrated these northern 
countries of Louisiana." 

But as the northern boundary of 
the "colony or province of Louisiana' ' 
the United States claimed the 49th 
parallel of latitude upon the ground 
that this parallel had been adopted and 
definitely settled by commissioners 
appointed agreeably to the 10th arti- 
cle of the Peace of Utrecht in 1713. 
Says Gallatin: "The limits between 
the possessions of Great Britain and 
those of ours in the same quarter, 
namely, Canada and Louisiana, were 
determined by commissioners ap- 
pointed in pursuance of the treaty of 
Utrecht. From the coast of Labrador 
to a certain point north of Lake Supe- 
rior those limits were fixed according 
to certain metes and bounds, and from 
that point the line of demarcation 
was agreed to extend indefinitely west 
along the 49th parallel north latitude. 
It was in conformity with that arrange - 
33 



ment that the United States claimed 
that parallel as the northern boundary 
of Louisiana. It has been accordingly 
thus settled as far as the Stony Moun- 
tains by the convention of 1818, be- 
tween the United States and Great 
Britain, and no adequate reason can be 
given why the same boundary should 
not be continued as far as the claims 
of the United States extend — that is to 
say, as far as the Pacific Ocean." (a) 

But Greenhow makes it quite clear 
that these commissioners never did 
definitely agree upon this boundary 
line. (3) 

Universally, however, the 49th par- 
allel came to be considered, in this 
country, as the boundary line estab- 
lished under that treaty ; but on some 
maps the highlands encircling Hudson 
Bay were laid down as the boundary 
line under the treaty of Utrecht, and 
on other maps, published by authority 
of the British Government, no line 
was laid down at all; and, according 
to Pere Marest, the French in 1694, 

(a) Writings of Gallatin, Vol 3, p. 310. 
{b) See Greenhow's Oregon, p. 281. 

34 



before this treaty was made and which 
merely confirmed English rights, 
claimed the right to trade in the Hud- 
son Bay country "to the 51st degree 
parallel and even further north." faj 

By the treaty of 1873 it was agreed 
between Great Britain and the United 
States that our northern boundary line 
should pass "through Lake Superior 
northward to the isles Royal and Phil - 
ipeaux to the Long Lake, thence 
through the middle of the Long Lake, 
between it to the Lake of the Woods ; 
thence through the said lake to the 
northwestern point thereof, and from 
thence on a due west course to the 
River Mississippi; thence by a line 
drawn along the middle of said River 
Mississippi until it shall intersect the 
northermost part of the 31st degree 
north latitude." 

When this northern line was adopt- 
ed it was supposed that the 49th 
parallel crossed the Mississippi some- 
where, but it was afterwards found that 
the highest water of this river did not 
extend beyond latitude 47 degrees, 36 

(a) 66 Jesuits' Relations, p. 69, 
35 



minutes north, and that the northern 
point of the Lake of the Woods stood 
in latitude 49 degrees 20 minutes 
north, or about 104 geographical miles 
north of the sources of the Mississippi. 

An effort was made in 1794 to make 
an amicable adjustment of this anom- 
ly, but nothing definite resulted. By 
the treaty of 1803 already referred to 
it was agreed that the northern bound- 
ary between Great Britian and the 
United States should be from the Lake 
of the Woods to the Mississippi by the 
shortest line, but the purchase of the 
"colony or province of Louisiana" 
gave a new importance to this subject, 
and the treaty was not ratified. 

By the treaty of 1807, it was attemp- 
ted to fix the 49th parallel as the 
boundary between the United States 
and Great Britain as far as the Rocky 
Mountains, but this treaty was also 
rejected, because the line along the 
49th parallel was not extended west- 
ward to the Pacific Ocean. 

Thus early was the 49th parallel 
claimed and recognized as our north- 
ern boundary by virtue of the Louisi^ 
36 



ana Purchase and admitted to be the 
line of the I^ouisiana Purchase as far 
as the Rocky Mountains by Great 
Britain, and thus a large portion of 
the territory now lying in the states 
of Minnesota, North Dakota and 
Montana secured. 

According to the treaty of 1783 
our limits did not extend beyond the 
headwaters of the Mississippi as 
stated, being 47 degrees and 30 min- 
utes north parallel, and Falconer says 
that "nothing west or north of this 
line (that is, a line from the head of 
the Lake of the Woods as set out in 
the treaty of 1783 to the headwaters 
of the Mississippi) was granted by 
Great Britain to the United States in 
1783, and nothing north of the head- 
waters of the Mississippi was retained 
by France under the treaty of 
1763". (a) 

What we acquired north of the 47th 
degree 30 minutes parallel and west 
of a line drawn from the head of the 
Lake of the Woods and the Missis- 
sippi we owe entirely to the purchase 

(«) On the Mississippi and Orejron, p. 36. 

37 



of the "colony and province of Louisi- 
ana' ' and the uncertainty of the north- 
ern boundary thus acquired. 

In those early negotiations Great 
Britain set up no claim to the terri- 
tory south of the 49th parallel and 
west of the Rocky Mountains, but 
different efforts were made "to over- 
reach the Americans with respect to 
the country west of the Rocky Moun - 
tains." And without presenting any 
claim "they endeavored to leave a 
nest-egg for future pretentions in that 
quarter." (a) At that time no Amer- 
ican publisher or map-maker was en- 
gaged in furnishing arguments to 
advance British pretensions. 

ia) State Papers 1822-3 cited in Benton's Thirty 
Years, Vol. 1, p. 51. 



38 



nhe boundaries on the west of "the 
vast, ill -defined region known 
as Louisiana," (a) according 
to Stoddard, ran from "a remarkable 
bend" in the Rio Bravo *' about 29 
degrees, 25 minutes, north latitude, 
near which is the southern extremity 
of the Mexican Mountains," and 
which was the line of demarcation 
between Louisiana and the Spanish 
possessions, and there "leaves the 
river, diverges a little to the right, and 
runs along to the northwest on the 
summit of these mountains till it ter- 
minates in the 46th degree of north 
latitude" (d) . But Franquelins map 
of 1684 does not carry the mountains 
further north than the 40th degree, and 
nothing north of the 40th degree par- 
allel by this map is admitted to belong 
to Spain. On this map "la Grande 
Riviere des Emiss^ourites" is shown 
as far north as the 38 degree north 
parallel. On the other hand, the map 

(a) Roosevelt's Winning the West, Vol. 1, p. 19. 

(b) Stoddard's I,ouisiana, p. 146, 

39 



published with Charlevoix' History 
of New France "Dressee par N. B. 
Ing du Roy, et Hydrg de la Marine," 
dated 1743, clearly marks an advance 
of geographical knowledge, as well as 
an advance of the French claims on 
this continent. The New Mexican 
Mountains are shown to extend north 
to the 42nd or 43rd degree parallel, 
but beyond the words ' ' Nouvelle 
France" are carried across the conti- 
nent from the Mer de I'Ouest to the 
Atlantic. The territory south of "St. 
Fez" is designated as "Nouveau Mex- 
ique." The Missouri seems to be 
laid down so as to head off the Mex- 
ican Mountains extending north of the 
Rio Bravo to about the 43rd parallel. 
Certainly these two maps do not show 
that the Spanish pretensions extend 
as far as the "46th degree north lati- 
tude." The map attached to the 
History of lyouisiana by du Pratz, and 
to which Stoddard makes reference, 
seems to carry the Spanish boundaries 
no farther than the 41st degree north 
latitude, {a) and the dotted lines on 

(a) See map dated 1^57 attached to the History of 
I/Ouisiana by du Pratz, I,ondon Kditiou, 1763, 

40 



this map especially show an attempt 
to mark the boundary line between 
the French and Spanish possessions 
on the west and north. 

The Spaniards seemed little in- 
clined to extend their claim further 
eastward than the summit of the 
so - called Mexican Mountains. It 
is true that in 1720 they sent an 
expedition to the Missouri, attempt- 
ing to make an establishment on 
that river, but the Indians utterly 
destroyed the entire party, and after 
that no Spanish efforts were made to 
interfere with the French pretensions. 
(a) For over eighty years the French 
controlled, to their sources, all the 
rivers emptying into the Mississippi 
from the west, and "hence the proba- 
bility is strong that they (the Spani- 
ards) considered the Mexican Moun- 
tains, or sources of the rivers in them, 
as the western limits of Louisiana" 
{b) as far north as the mountains ran, 
or w^ere known; namely, to about the 
42nd or 43rd degree north latitude. 

(n) See Bossu's Travels, Vol. 1, p. 151. 
(b) Stoddard's Louisiana, p. 134. 

41 



It should not be forgotten that the 
Colorado, Trinity, Red River, Arkan- 
sas, Platte and some other large rivers 
have their springs in these mountains. 
(a) That the Spaniards considered 
these mountains as the limit dividing 
their possessions from those of the 
French is also shown by the fact that 
when some French traders made a tem- 
porary establishment in these moun- 
tains for the purpose of trade, and 
were imprisoned at the instance of the 
Santa Fe merchants, because they 
deemed this French trading establish- 
ment an infringement of their rights, 
they were ultimately liberated and 
their goods restored to them by a 
decision of the superior court at "the 
Havannah" on the ground that the 
French establishment was located on 
the west side of the summit of the 
Mexican Mountains, (d) But by the 
treaty of 1819 the United States 
relinquished to Spain the district of 
country west of the Sabine and south 
of the upper part of the Red and 
Arkansas Rivers, and a line drawn on 

(a) Stoddard's lyOuisiana. p. 146. 
{b) See Stoddard's Louisiana, p. 146. 

42 



the meridian from the source of the 
Arkansas north to the 42nd parallel of 
latitude was definitely made the west- 
ern boundary of Louisiana and the 
42nd degree north parallel, extending 
to the Pacific Ocean, was also fixed as 
the northern limit of the Spanish 
possessions, this being about the line 
indicated on the French maps as the 
utmost northern limit of the Spanish 
pretenisons. {a) 

The western boundary of the "pro- 
vince or colony of Louisiana" north 
of the 42nd parallel has, however, 
given rise to great controversy. 

In the "Account of Louisiana" 
already referred to it is said that "the 
precise boundaries of Louisiana west- 
wardly of the Mississippi, though very 
extensive, are at present enveloped in 
some obscurity." (d) No discoveries 

(a) "Before we conclude, it maybe of use to re- 
mark that the Shining Mountains and the Mexican 
Mountains, though often confounded, are, in a great 
measure, distinct. The former are the Andes of 
South America; the latter commence some distance 
to the northward of the Gulf and run to the left of 
the bank of the Rio Bravo, and extend, in a north- 
erly direction, a little to the eastward of Santa Fe 
until they intersect the former. They are probably 
branches or spurs of the Shining Mountains." 
(Stoddard's L,ouisiana, p. 149.) 

(b) Page 1. 

43 



on the Missouri beyond the Mandans 
were accurately detailed, "though the 
traders have been informed that many 
large navigable waters discharge their 
waters into it far above it, and that 
there are many numerous nations 
settled on them." (a) 

"The extent of lyouisiana," it is 
said in the secret instructions to Gen- 
eral Victor, "is well determined on 
the south by the Gulf of Mexico, but 
bounded on the west by the river 
called Bravo, from its mouth to about 
the 30th degree parallel. The line of 
demarcation stops on reaching this 
point, and there seems never to have 
been any agreement in regard to this 
part of the frontier. The further we 
go northward , the more undecided the 
boundary. This part of North Amer- 
ica contains little more than uninhab- 
ited forests or Indian tribes, and the 
necessity of fixing a boundary has 
never yet been felt there. There also 
exists none between Louisiana and 
Canada." (d) 

(a) Page 28. 

id) Secret Instructions of Decres to General Vic- 
tor. Archives de la Marine, MMS. cited in Henry 
Adams' History of U. S., 3rd Vol., p. 32. 

44 



And in a memorial prepared in 
Paris in 1718, cited by Winsor, and 
in which is outlined a plan to give 
Louisiana a dominating position in 
North America, it was urged that one 
branch of the Missouri led to the 
South Sea, and that on that route a 
trade could be opened with China and 
Japan, thus showing that at that time 
the French claim extended to the 
Pacific Ocean, (a) 

As early as 1720 it was conjectured 
that west of the headwaters of the 
Missouri a great river flowed west- 
ward , and Coxe in his Carolana makes 
one of the branches of this western 
stream interlock with the branches of 
the Missouri, (d) 

The uncertainty of the boundaries 
of Louisiana in this quarter did not 
result from any uncertainty as to the 
claims made by France in North 
America. France always claimed the 
Western Ocean as the boundary of 
her American possessions. As early 

(a) Winsor's Miss. Basin, p. 112. 

ib) Winsor's Miss. Basin, p. 13S and 217. Also 
see Historical Collection of Louisiana, by French, 
Vol. 2, page 230, where Coxe's work is given in full. 

45 



as June 14th, 1671, de St. lyusson at a 
great gathering of all the Indian tribes 
held at Sault St. Marys "in the name 
of the most High, most Mighty and 
most Redoubtable Monarch, Louis 
XIV. of the name, the most Christian 
King of France and Navarre," took 
possession of all the "countries, rivers, 
lakes and tributaries contiguous and 
adjacent thereunto as well discovered 
as to be discovered, which are bounded 
on the one side by the Northern and 
Western seas and on the other side by 
the South sea, including all its length 
and breadth." (a) 

And I'Escarbot, in his History of 
New France, written in 1687, thus 
describes its limits: "Our Canada has 
for its limits on the west side the lands 
as far as the sea called the Pacific on 
this side of the Tropic of Cancer." {d) 

DuLuth intended in 1680 to push an 
expedition westward to the Salt Water, 
which he supposed to be the Gulf of 
California and only twenty days' jour- 
ney distant, (c) 

(a) nth Wisconsin Hist. Col., p. 28. 
id) Cited in Brower's Miss. River and its Sources. 
Minn. Hist, Col., Vol. 7, p. 97, note. 
(c) Winsor's Cartier to Frontenac, p. 274. 

46 



In 1720 the celebrated Pere Charle- 
voix was expressly commissioned by 
the French Government to visit Cana- 
da to seek a route to the Western sea. 
In the Journal of the Jesuits for the 
year 1720, under the date of August 
7th, his arrival is thus chronicled: 
*%a Pere Charlevoix arrived from 
France by order of the Court to col- 
lect information for the discovery of 
tke Mer d' Occident. He is to re- 
turn by Mobile." (a) 

For many years it was the dream of 
the French Jesuits and explorers to 
find the "Sea of China" by a river 
discharging its waters into the Vermil- 
lion sea or Gulf of California. 

After Marquette discovered from the 
direction of the Mississippi, that it 
probably discharged its waters into the 
Gulf of Mexico, he says that he hopes 
by means of the Pekitanoui ( Missouri) , 
according to the reports made to him 
by the savages, "to find it leading to- 
wards California. ' ' From the savages 
he writes: "I have learned that by 
ascending this river, (the Missouri) 

(a) 59 Jesuits Relations, p. 235. 
47 



for five or six days one reaches a fine 
prairie twenty or thirty leagues long-. 
This must be crossed in a northwest - 
ernly direction, and it terminates at 
another small river on which one may 
embark, for it is not difficult to trans- 
fer canoes in so fine a country as that 
prairie. This second river flows to- 
wards the Southwest for ten or fifteen 
leagues, after which it enters a lake 
small and deep, which flows towards 
the West, where it falls into the sea, 
and I do not despair of discovering it 
some day, if God grant me the cross 
and health to do so, in order that I 
may preach the gospel to this new 
world, which has so long grovelled in 
the darkness of infidelity." (a) 

And LaHontan in speaking of his 
pretended journey in 1688 up the 
"Long River," supposed to be the 
Missouri, and on which LaHontan 
may or may not have traveled, first 
mentions the Rocky Mountains, and 
then says that on a deer skin map the 
Indians laid down a river flowing 
westward. "All they could say," he 

(a) 59 Jesuits's Relations, p. 143. 

43 



writes, ''was that the Great River of 
that nation runs all along westward, 
and that the Salt Lake into which it 
falls is 300 leagues in circumference 
and thirty in breadth , its mouth stretch - 
ing a great way to the Southward.'' 
LaHontan usually is altogether dis- 
credited and deemed unworthy of be- 
lief, but information to some extent 
correct he certainly obtained , and some 
of his statements have been confirmed 
by subsequent discoveries. In report- 
ing and taking for true the fabulous 
tales of some of his Indian informants, 
and reporting them without discrimi - 
nation he followed the foot -steps of 
many of the early American travelers 
and chroniclers. It is said that LaHon- 
tan was a free thinker and a free writ- 
er, and that therefore his work and 
writings were traduced and discredit- 
ed, {a) And this may be the reason 
why a learned priest named Babe de- 
nounced the pretended claim of La 
Hontan of a journey up the '%ong 
River. ' ' 

(a) H. H. Bancroft's Hist, of the N, W.. Vol. 1, p. 
889. 

49 



But Babe in 1716 wrote to De L'Isle, 
Geographer of Sciences in Paris, that 
towards the sources of the Mississippi 
"there is a highland that leads to the 
Western Ocean," and it is said he 
greatly tormented the Governor -Gen- 
eral of Canada, M. Raudot and M. 
Duche "to endeavor to discover this 
ocean." 

In 1731, Sieur de la Verendrye (a) 
endeavored to establish a chain of forts 
and posts across the continent as far 
as the South Sea. He gradually 
erected his forts, trading and trajB&c- 
ing westward. In 1738 he built Fort 
La Reine, in 1742 reached the Yellow 
Stone. On the first of January, 1743, 
his eldest son Pierre, accompanied by 
his brother and two Frenchmen, dis- 
covered and faced the craggy and 
snow -clad Rocky Mountains, made 
the ascent near the present site of Hel- 
ena and took possession of the valley 
of the Missouri for France, (d) 

And speaking of la Verendrye, 
Pere Nau says in his letter dated Oct. 

(c) The name of Verendrye according to Suite, 
spelled fourteen different ways in different docu- 
ments. 

ib) H. H. Bancroft's Hist, of Montana, p. 600. 

50 



2, 1735. ''I had a pretty long con- 
versation with la Verendrye, who is in 
command of the three most w^estern 
forts. I understood from the interview 
that not much reliance can be placed 
on what he says concerning white - 
bearded savages. The Western Sea 
would have been discovered long ago 
if people had wished it. Monsieur de 
Count de Maurepas is right when he 
says that ''the officials in Canada are 
looking not for the Western Sea, but 
for the Sea of Beaver." (a) 

As early as 1724 M. DuBourgmont 
made extensive explorations northwest 
from Fort Orleans, located near the 
mouth of the Osage, going up the Mis- 
souri River accompanied by a few 
French soldiers and a large party of 
friendly Indians. 

In no wise did the work of explo- 
ration relax. On the contrary the 
claim of France to the Western Ocean 
as the boundary of her American pos - 
sessions was always asserted, and 
constant efforts were made to discover 
the path that would lead to that ocean. 

(a) 68 Jesuits' Relations, p. 283. 

51 



A map accompanying Charlevoix' 
History, published in 1743, shows 
Mer de L' Quest as the western boun- 
dary of New France, (a) This map 
also shows that the "River of the 
West' ' is laid down south of the 50th 
parallel to '*Ice suivant le raport des 
Sauvages commence la Flux et re- 
flux" 

In 1758, in his History of Louis- 
iana (b), M. La Page du Pratz gives 
an account of the discovery of the 
Western Sea by Moncachtape, a Yazoo 
Indian living among the Natchez, and 
who was known to the French as 
r Interpret, because master of many 
languages. Moncachtape was a most 
remarkable man, possessed of a re- 
markable mind and of an eager thirst 
for knowledge. In about the year 
1745, so du Pratz relates, he crossed 
the Mississippi to explore the country 
along the sources of the Missouri. He 
spent a winter with the Missouris, 
learned the language of the Kansas 
Indians residing further up the river, 

(a) See copy of map Shea's Translation of Charle- 
voix' History of New France. 

ib) Vol. 2, p. 120, edition of 1763. TvOndon. 

52 



then in a pirogue began to ascend the 
Great River, and undismayed by the 
tales of peril, finally reached the snow- 
clad Rocky Mountains. While hesi- 
tating whether to proceed, he saw a 
smoke arise, and supposing that it 
came from a camp, he found, to his 
joy, that he was not mistaken and 
that some thirty men and women of 
the Otter nation were moving east- 
ward buffalo hunting. He did not 
understand their language, but made 
himself understood by signs. With 
one of those Indians returning west 
as a guide, Moncachtape passed over 
the worst part of the rocky route. 
For nine short days he still further 
ascended the waters of the Missouri, 
then marched north for five days, and 
at the end of this time reached a clean 
and beautiful water called, for this 
reason, the Beautiful River, and fol- 
lowing this river with his guide, ar- 
rived at the village of the Otter tribe. 
Here our Indian explorer remained 
for a fortnight to learn some of the 
language, then departing he floated 
down the river for eighteen days, 
53 



where he remained at another village 
with a friendly Indian tribe, in order 
to learn more of the language, further 
down the stream, so that he would 
be able to understand all the nations 
which he might find on his way to 
the Great Water. Finally he departed 
from this village, and, after many 
incidents, reached a people residing 
then one day's journey from the ocean, 
and, after various adventures, he jour- 
neyed along the coast still farther 
north until he ascertained that all was 
a cold, barren and desolate waste, 
then he turned his face homeward, 
where he arrived after an absence of 
five 3^ears. Here du Pratz met him, 
questioned him closely, and finally 
records his journey, giving it as his 
opinion that he had found the Western 
Sea, so much discussed in I^ouisiana, 
and which all were so desirous to 
discover, and there is no reason to 
doubt it — the mountains, the river and 
the sea are there to-day, as Moncach- 
tape described them, and let it be 
remembered, no other person, white 
or red, so far as known, had ever be- 
54 



fore performed this journey between 
the Mississippi and the Pacific Ocean 
b}^ way of the Columbia River, (a) 

In his map of lyouisiana published in 
1757 du Pratz shows the route of Mon- 
cachtape and the Belle River flowing 
from the Rocky Mountains westward. 
So that at that time undoubtedly the 
headwaters of the Columbia were to 
some extent known and claimed to 
belong to lyouisiana. Charlevoix also 
came to to the conclusion "in a gen- 
eral way that the Missouri somewhere 
in its springs did interlock with other 
waters which sought towards the west 
an unknown sea." (d) 

It is certain that Jefferson was fa- 
miliar with the narrative of du Pratz 
of the journey of Moncachtape, as 
would appear from his letter of in- 
struction to Lewis, as well as with 
Charlevoix's views and maps. 

Bougainville, Chief of Staff of 
Montcalm, in a memoir on the State 
of Canada, published in 1757, gives 
an^ account of the posts west of 

(a) H. H. Bancroft's History of the N. W., Vol. 1, 
p. 607. 

(^>) Wiusor's Miss. Basin, p. 138. 

55 



Lake Superior and says: '%a Mer 
d'Ouest is a post that includes the 
Forts St. Pierre, St. Charles, Bourbon, 
de la Reine, Dauphine, Paskoyas and 
des Prairies — all of which are built 
with palisades that could give protec- 
tion only against the Indians." 

Although under this name the post 
of "the Sea of the West" w^as embrac- 
ed, according to Bougainville, the 
whole country from Rainy Lake to the 
Rocky Mountains and from North 
Saskatchewan to the Missouri, and the 
Sea was not mentioned as boundary, 
the fact that all the forts embraced 
within this enormous district were 
designated "as a post" named "La 
Mer d'Ouest," {a) significantly points 
to the fact that the Sea of the West was 
considered the western boundary. 

Marbois says: "According to old 
documents the Bishopric of Louisiana 
extended to the Pacific Ocean, and the 
limits of the dioceses thus defind were 
secure from ail dispute. But this was 
at most a matter of expectancy, and 
the Indians of these regions never had 

(a) Warren's Hist, of the Ojibways, p. 426. 
56 



any suspicion of the spiritual juris- 
diction which it was designed to ex- 
ercise over them. Besides it had no 
connection with the rights of sover- 
eignty of property . " (a) No one must 
have known better than Marbois that 
the fact that the Bishopric of I^ouisi- 
ana was extended as far as the Paciific 
Ocean was based on the idea that the 
territory was French territory and the 
expectation that the civil jurisdiction 
of the French Government would be 
extended so as to include the limits 
so described. It is true the country 
was unexplored, but it was certainly 
claimed to be within the French sphere 
of discovery. Possessed of the Rocky 
Mountain hinterland and the head- 
waters of the Columbia, France natur- 
ally would claim the control of the 
Columbia to its mouth, and to the 
ocean, just as France claimed posses- 
sion of the mouth of the Mississippi 
by virtue of discovering the headwaters 
of this stream and following its waters 
to the Gulf of Mexico, although prior 
to the discovery and exploration of the 

(a) Marbois' Louisiana, p. 284. 

57 



Mississippi by France Spanish explor- 
ers had crossed and re -crossed the 
stream at various times, and although 
Spain claimed exclusive control of the 
whole coast of the Gulf of Mexico, 
and the Gulf itself was considered a 
Spanish inland sea. 

So also when France ceded to Great 
Britain her claim to the Hudson Bay- 
country the claim was expanded to the 
Northern Ocean and westwardly to the 
Pacific Ocean from her settlements on 
that bay. (a) 

After the province of Louisiana 
passed into the hands of Spain the 
work of exploration did not cease. 
The limits of geographical and topo- 
graphical knowledge of the great in- 
terior of the continent were constantly 
extended and enlarged, but in accor- 
dance with the well known and illiberal 
policy of Spain, no publication, or at 
most meagre publications of the dis- 
coveries and labors of the Spanish 
discoverers were made. Their reports 
were buried in the Spanish archives, 
and often the explorers and voyagers 

{a) Calhoun's Works, Vol. 5, p. 454. 
58 



of other nations reaped the glory and 
reward more justly due the Spaniards 
by right of priority. 

During the Spanish dominion of 
lyouisiana, frequent expeditions were 
made up the Missouri and to the 
headwaters of the Columbia. 

That the Spanish authorities were 
actively at work to enlarge the limits 
of human knowledge and to carry 
explorations beyond the sources of the 
Missouri, expecting thus to discover 
the Pacific, claiming all the interme- 
diate country as within *'the province 
and colony of lyouisiana" is clearly 
shown by a petition addressed to Don 
Manual Gayoso de I^emos, Governor - 
General of the Province of I^ouisiana, 
by one Joseph Robideaux, Indian 
trader in St. Louis, setting forth his 
grievances against Claymorgan, and 
in which he alleges that on May 12, 
1794, Don Zenon Trudeau, Lieutenant- 
Governor of the western part of Illi- 
nois, called the traders together to 
unite in a co-partnership, consolidate 
their respective capitals to control 
the trade in peltries then carried on in 
59 



the upper Missouri, explaining to 
them at the same time that it was his 
purpose "to enlighten the age in re- 
gard to that portion of the globe, as 
yet so little known," and that to this 
purpose "he required that in pursuing 
this trade those engaged in it would 
pay attention to unite to the employees 
they might send to the country, en- 
lightened persons, and use every ex- 
ertion to penetrate the sources of the 
Missouri, and beyond, if possible, to 
the Southern Ocean," and to acquire 
a correct knowledge of the country 
till then almost entirely unknown, (a) 
And in another petition, dated March 
1st, 1797, Don Jaque Claymorgan 
claims that he was employed by the 
Spanish Government to explore the 
Indian nations as far as the Pacific 
Ocean, and that in order to defray the 
excessive expenses and at the same 
time to keep off the foreign traders of 
Hudson Bay and Lake Superior, an 
annual allowance of ten thousand dol- 
lars was made by the Spanish Gov- 
ernment. The Spanish company, of 

{a) Billon's Annals of St. Louis, Vol. 1, p. 281. 
60 



which Claymorgan was the leading 
spirit, was organized in 1794, in St. 
Louis, as stated in his petition by 
Robideaux, with the object to engage 
in the fur trade on the upper Missouri, 
and by a special royal order, dated 
May 27, 1792, the organization of the 
company was approved, and it was 
authorized to maintain a hundred 
armed men in its forts at royal ex- 
pense. The money, however, stipu- 
lated to be paid these soldiers in the 
forts, was never paid. A land grant 
was afterwards made to Claymorgan, 
and in supporting his land grant he 
refers to his services as an explorer 
and the usual method of payment by 
grants of land under the Spanish Gov- 
ernment. Stoddard says : * 'The Span- 
ish Government never gave any sal- 
aries to its provincial officers, nor any 
gratuities in money, to those who, 
amid dangers and at great expense, 
explored unknown regions and made 
new discoveries, but when compensa- 
tions were solicited, it was usual to 
to bestow tracts of land instead of 
money." (a) Accordingly, a large 

(a) Sketches of L,ouisiana, p. 257, 
61 



grant of many thousand acres of land 
was granted by Lieutenant-Governor 
ZenonTrudeau to Claymorgan, and in 
an argument, after the acquisition of 
Louisiana, to secure a confirmation of 
this claim by Congress, it was claimed 
and asserted that he crossed the 
Rocky Mountains and reached the 
Pacific. His representatives said "to 
explore the sources of the Missouri 
and to arrive at the South Sea by 
crossing the Shining Mountains, was 
a project honorable to those who 
performed it and interesting to the 
human race. It was a scheme of 
discovery calculated to enlarge the 
boundaries of human knowledge, to 
open new sources of national wealth, 
to carry the light of civilization to 
many unlettered barbarians, and in 
time to revive, upon the Western 
coast of America, the fame of the an- 
cient cities which rose successfully 
upon the different channels of East- 
ern commerce and fell with its loss. 
It was an enterprise full of peril, of 
difficulty and of glory. It was con- 
ceived under the enlightened admin - 
62 



istration of the Governor -General of 
I^ouisiana, the Baron de Carondelet, 
and was executed under the patronage 
of our own immortal Jefferson. The 
names of Lewis and Clark live under 
the recollections of this grand event. 
Their precursor in the path of peril, 
but not in renown, was Don Jaque 
Claymorgan. He was the chosen in- 
strument of Baron de Carondelet. He 
embarked his fortune to make discov- 
eries, to found a commercial company, 
to conciliate barbarians, to make head 
against British influence and to make 
for his king the advantage he had by 
the establishments of forts and gar- 
risons." (a) 

Among others James McKay was 
also authorized to make a voyage of 
discovery up the Missouri to last for 
six years by Carondelet. He was 
identified with the Claymorgan Com- 
mercial Company and secured a land 
grant for his alleged services, but how 
far northwest he went or what discov- 
eries he made has not been recorded. 

(a) American State Papers, Pub. Lands, Vol. 3, p. 
270. 

63 



Also a map said to have been ac- 
curate of the Missouri River was made 
by a Mr. Evans for the Spanish Gov- 
ernment as far as the Mandans, and 
this map was afterwards transmitted 
by Jefferson to Lewis to aid him on 
his voyage of exploration, (a) 

While thus from the interior explo- 
rations were made of the upper portion 
of the Missouri Basin and the head - 
waters of the Columbia, the Spaniards 
were not idle on the Pacific coast. 
Leaving- out of view the early voyages 
along the northwest coast, it is un- 
doubtedly true that the whole extent 
of the northwest coast territory was 
formal taken possession of by Juan 
Perez in 1773, and that he carefully 
examined the whole littoral. 

In 1775 a second expedition under 
Bruno de Heceta was sent out, con- 
sisting of four vessels, and on June 
13th, in latitude 47 degrees and 30 
minutes Europeans first set foot on 
the soil of the coast. Capt. Heceta 
and a few sailors landed in the morn- 
ing, erected a cross and took actual 

(a) Lewis and Clerk's Expedition, Vol. 1 p. XXXII 
(Coues' Edition.) 

64 



possession. Sailing along the coast 
on the 17th of August Hecata in the 
afternoon discovered a bay with a 
strong current and eddies, indicating 
the mouth of a great river or strait in 
latitude 46 degrees and 9 miwutes, and 
which he named Bahia de la Asuncion, 
calling the northern point San Roque, 
and the southern Cabo Frondoso, this 
being what is now called the mouth of 
the Columbia River, between Capes 
Disappointment and Adams. No fur- 
ther explorations were attemped. The 
reports of these expeditions were not 
published, and by this mistaken poli- 
icy the Spanish navigators lost most 
of the honor due them, (a) 

So that if any doubt existed as to 
whether Louisiana extended to the 
Western Sea these discoveries and 
this formal occupation of the country 
would seem to have undoubtedly per- 
fected the title of Spain to this part of 
Louisiana . 

Jefferson even before the treaty of 
cession in a message to Congress in 
1803 suggested an expedition up the 

(a) H. H. Bancroft's Hist, of the'^N. W., Vol. 1, p 
158, et seq. 

65 



Missouri to secure the trade of the 
Indian tribes residing along that river, 
and ''offering, according to best ac- 
counts, a continued navigation from 
its sources, and possibly with a single 
portage from the Western Ocean," 
and he thought that ''an intelligent 
officer with ten or twelve chosen men, 
fit for the enterprise" might "explore 
the whole line even to the Western 
Ocean, have conferences with the na- 
tives on subjects of commercial inter- 
course, get admission among them for 
our traders as others are admitted," 
etc. , and requested from Congress an 
appropriation of $2500 for the purpose 
of extending the external commerce 
of the United States. 

From his letter of instructions to 
Lewis, dated, June 13, 1803, it is evi- 
dent that Jefferson thought the Louis - 
iana Purchase extended to the Pacific 
Ocean, although in a letter dated 
August 12, 1803, addressed to Mr. 
Breckenridge he says: "The boun- 
dary which I deem not admitting ques- 
tion of are the highlands on the west- 
ern side of the Mississippi, enclosing 
66 



all its waters, the Missouri, of course. ' ' 
To that extent it is to be inferred from 
this letter he considered the boundary 
as being undoubted. As to how far 
further west the boundary might or 
could extend was evidently an open 
question with him. 

In another letter addressed to Lewis 
he says: "The acquisition of the 
country through which you are to pass 
has inspired the country generally with 
a great deal of interest in your enter- 
prise." (a) Thus indicating that the 
country which Lewis and Clark were 
to explore had been acquired by the 
United States. 

The first sentence of the History of 
Lewis and Clark's Expedition **on 
the acquisition of Louisiana in the year 
1803, April 30th, the attention of the 
Government of the United States was 
earnestly directed towards exploring 
the entire territory" also clearly indi- 
cates that the purpose was to explore 
a territory supposed to have been ac- 
quired by the United States, (b) 

(c) Lewis & Clark's Expedition, Vol. 1. p. XXIII. 
(Coues' Edition.) 

(b) Lewis & Clark's Expedition— Coues' Edition. 
Vol. 1, p. 1. 

67 



In the "Preface by the Publisher" 
to the Journal of Patrick Gass, "one 
of the persons employed in the expe- 
dition" of Lewis and Clark, it is said, 
in speaking of the country explored, 
that "it will not be forgotten that an 
immense sum of treasure has been 
expended in the purchase of this coun - 
try, and that it is now considered as 
belonging to the United States." (a) 

Jefferson, in his message of Janu- 
ary 18, 1803, before the purchase, and 
when France had acquired Louisiana 
from Spain, says: "The nation claim- 
ing the territory (Spain) regarding 
this as a literary pursuit which it is 
in the habit of permitting within its 
dominions, would not be disposed to 
view it with jealousy, even if the 
expiring state of its interests there did 
not render it a matter of indifference. ' ' 
And this also clearly shows that he 
then considered the country to be 
explored as a part of Louisiana, (d) 

As stated, the boundary of the coun- 
try acquired was uncertain and might 

(a) Journal of Patrick Gass, p. Vll-Pittsburgf, 1807, 
ib) Messagfes and Papers of the Presidents, Vol. 
1. p, 354. 

68 



become a matter of dispute, but that 
Jefferson intended, by this exploration, 
to claim as a part of the I^ouisiana 
Purchase all that France ever claimed, 
cannot be denied. At the same time it 
is evident that our claim was carefully- 
advanced, so as not needlessly to 
antagonize Spain, who was much dis- 
satisfied with the treaty. In his 
message he cautiously says: ''The 
appropriation of $2500 'for the pur- 
pose of extending the external com- 
merce of the United States,' while 
understood and considered by the 
Executive as giving the lyCgislative 
sanction, would cover the undertaking 
from notice and prevent the obstruc- 
tions which interested individuals 
might otherwise previously prepare 
in its way." {a) 

In his message of December, 1805, 
Jefferson complains that Spain, west 
of the Mississippi River, claimed as a 
boundary "a line which would have 
left us but a string of land on that 
bank of the River Mississippi." (d) 

(a) See Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 
Vol. 1, p. 354. 

(b) See Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 
Vol. 1, p. 389. 

69 



His wisdom in at once causing our 
new acquisition to be explored and 
mapped in every direction was full}^ 
vindicated by subsequent events, and 
especially the expedition of I^ewis and 
Clark across the Rocky Mountains 
to the Pacific Ocean. It is almost 
certain that if Jefferson had taken 
the narrow view as to the boundaries 
of L^ouisiana that are advanced by 
some now, with so much confi- 
dence, that the northwest coast would 
have fallen into the hands of England. 
A vast majority of the people of the 
United States then placed no value on 
the trans -montane country, and the 
broad claim made for the Pacific as 
a lyouisiana boundary was ridiculed, 
by many, because the country was 
considered worthless and too remote. 

In February, 1806, in a special 
message, Jefferson advised Congress 
of the success of the expedition of 
Lewis and Clark, and that the explor- 
ing party had passed the winter at the 
Mandans, about 1600 miles above the 
mouth of the Missouri, and to which 
point the Spanish Government caused 
70 



the river to be mapped by Evans. 
Also that the country further west, 
between the Missouri and the Pacific, 
from the 34th to the 54th degree of 
latitude, had been crossed, and he 
transmitted a statistical view ' ' of the 
Indian nations inhabiting the territory 
of lyouisiana and the country adjacent 
to its northern and western borders, of 
their commerce, and other interesting 
circumstances respecting them." (a) 
According to Martin, "Since the 
French enjoyed the undisputed pos- 
session of lyouisiana, its extent in 
their opinion had scarcely any bounds 
to the northwest; and its limits were 
ill defined everywhere, except on the 
sea coast. As its sovereign claimed 
all the neighboring country, which 
was without inhabitants or occupied 
by savage enemies, the demarcation 
of its limits was impossible, even if it 
had been desirable." But he states 
erroneously, that by the Nootka 
Convention, Spain ceded to England 
the northwest coast as far south as the 
boundary of California and says, that 

(a) Messages and Papers of the Presidents, Vol. 
1, p. 398. 

71 



^ 'where New Albion ended Louisiana 
was said to begin. " («) By the Nootka 
Convention no territorial rights were 
ceded to Great Britain, and conse- 
quently New Albion, by which name 
English geographers designated the 
whole northwest coast, was not ex- 
tended south to the boundary of Cal- 
ifornia, as Judge Martin supposed. All 
Spain ceded by the Nootka Convention 
was that the subjects of Great Britain 
should not be disturbed or molested 
in navigating or fishing on the Pacific 
or Southern Ocean, or in landing on 
the coasts of those seas in places not 
already occupied for the purpose of 
carrying on their commerce with the 
natives or making settlements. These 
rights up to 1790 Spain claimed ex- 
clusively in regard to the Pacific and 
Southern Oceans and by this conven- 
tion ceded to Great Britain. The war 
however, of 1796 between Spain and 
Great Britain abrogated the conven- 
vion. (d) . 

{a) Martin's History of Louisiana, Vol. 2, p. 201. 

ib) See Greenhow's Oregon, p. 318, where the sub- 
ject is fully and exhaustively discussed, and it is 
clearly shown that by the Nootka Convention Great 
Britain acquired no territorial rights. 

72 



Generally at the time of the acqui- 
sition the "colony and province" of 
lyouisiana wavS considered to extend 
indefinitely west. Brackenridge says : 
' ' To the westward no limits were 
ever assigned by the French while 
they possessed Louisiana, but it was 
considered as including at least all the 
country whose streams either directly 
or indirectly discharged themselves 
into the Mississippi." (a) But when 
Brackenridge published his work in 
1813 he admitted that then "our geo- 
graphers had boldly claimed to the 
Pacific." Although he was not pre- 
pared to go so far, he says "that our 
right is much better supported than 
that of any other nation by reason of 
our exploring expedition and our 
establishments for trading with the 
Indians." 

John Mason Peck, an able and dis- 
tinguished writer on all subjects 
relating to the history of the west, also 
says, that by the aquisition of Louisi- 
ana the United States "extended her 
boundaries to the Pacific Ocean." (d) 

(a) Brackenridge's Views of Louisiana, p. 61. 
{d) See Annals of the West, page 534. 

73 



And again, that in Upper lyouisiana 
was included "all the vast regions of 
the West, far as the Pacific Ocean, 
south of the 49th degree of north lati- 
tude unclaimed by Spain." (a) 

In reply to the counter statement 
made by the British Minister, Packen- 
ham, in 1844, who in it quoted the 
letter of Jefferson to Breckenridge 
defining the boundaries of lyouisiana 
on the west, Calhoun said: "It is 
manifest from the extract itself that the 
object of Mr. Jefferson was not to 
state the extent of the claim acquired 
with Louisiana, but simply to state 
how far its unquestioned boundaries 
extended; and those he limited west- 
wardly by the Rocky Mountains. It 
is in like manner manifest from the 
document, as cited by the counterstate - 
ment, that his object was not to deny 
that our claims extend to the territory , 
but simply expressed his opinion of 
the impolicy of in the then state of our 
relations with Spain of bringing them 
forward. This so far from denying 
that we had claims admits them by 

(a) Annals of the West, page 542. 
74 



the clearest implication. If indeed in 
either case his opinion had been equiv- 
ocally expressed, the prompt measure 
adopted by him to explore the territory 
after the treaty was negotiated, but 
before it was ratified, clearly shows 
that it was his opinion not onl}'- that 
we had acquired claims to it, but very 
important claims which deserved 
prompt attention." (a) 

But it is said that the first descrip- 
tion of the western boundary of Louis - 
iana of any authority is the grant of 
September 17, 1712, made by Louis 
XIV to Crozat— and that the western 
limits fixed by this grant must control 
the territorial limits. The grant em- 
powered Crozat "to carry on the ex- 
clusive trade in all the territories by us 
possessed and bounded by New Mexico 
and those of the English in Carolina. 
All the establishments, posts, harbors, 
rivers, and especially the post and 
harbor of Dauphine Island, formerly 
called Massacre Island, the River St. 
Louis, formerly called the Mississippi, 
from the seashore to the Illinois, to- 

(rt) Calhoun's Works, Vol. 5. p. 454. 
75 



gether with the River St. Phillip, 
formerly called the Missouri River, 
and the St. Jerome, formerly called 
the Wabash (the Ohio), with all the 
countries, territories, lakes inland, 
and the rivers emptying directly or 
indirectly into that part of the River 
St. lyouis. *** All the said territories, 
countries, streams and islands we will 
to be and remain comprised under the 
name of the 'Government of I^ouis- 
iana,' which shall be dependent on 
the general government of New France 
and remain subordinate to it ; and we 
will, moreover, that all the territories 
which we possess on this side of the 
Illinois be united as far as need to be 
to the general Government of New 
France and form apart thereof, reserv- 
ing to ourselves to increase, if we 
think proper, the extent of the Govern- 
ment of lyouisiana. " ( a ) By the bound - 
aries thus set forth the entire water- 
shed of the Mississippi was included 
in the Territory of Louisiana. Un- 
questionably the territory and govern- 
ment thus created did not extend 

(a) Wallace— Ivouisiana and Illinois under French 
Rule, p. 235. 

76 



beyond the Rocky Mountains, because 
that great range divides the waters 
flowing into the Pacific from those 
flowing into the Atlantic; but this 
ought not be construed to mean that 
France did not claim at a later date 
that Louisiana extended to the Pacific, 
or that the rights of France were 
limited and curtailed by the western 
mountains. 

One salient fact already pointed out 
in support of the contention that 
Louisiana reached to the shores of 
the Pacific is unqualifiedly admitted 
by Marbois, namely, that the Bishopric 
of Louisiana was bounded by that 
ocean, (a) 

It is also certain that the limits of 
Louisiana as originally defined in 1712 
in the grant to Sieur Crozat, were not 
intended by the French king to be the 
final boundaries of the "colony or 
province," because in the first article 
defining the powers, duties and re- 
strictions imposed on Crozat, it is 
expressly provided that the King re- 
serves the liberty "of enlarging as we 

(a) Ante page 56. 

77 



shall think fit, the extent of the 
government of the said country of 
Louisiana. ' ' Accordingly, as we have 
seen in 1717, the Illinois country was 
detached from Canada and added 
to lyouisiana. The proces -verbal 
of LaSalle claiming the entire 
valley of the Mississippi, with all 
its affluents as well as all the 
country to the mouth of the Rio de 
Palmas (a river about 100 leagues 
from the River Panuco, Tampico, 
Mexico) no more defined the final 
limits of the boundaries of Louisiana, 
and such as those boundaries might 
finally become, than the grant to Sieur 
Crozat. The whole water -shed of the 
Mississippi was claimed both at the 
village of Kapaha, on the 14th of 
March, 1682, and at the mouth of the 
Mississippi on the 19th of April, 1682. 
But OH the 14th of June, 1671, St. 
Lusson, at St. Marys of the Falls, as we 
have seen, took possession of all the 
"countries, rivers, lakes and tribu- 
taries contiguous and adjacent thereun - 
to, as well discovered as to be discov- 
ered, which are bounded on the one 
78 



side by the Northern and Western Seas 
and on the other side by the South Sea, 
including all its length and breadth," 
and accordingly as has been shown on 
several maps the limits of lyouisiana 
were carried beyond the sources of the 
Mississippi to the basin of lyake Win- 
nipeg, and even as far as the highlands 
encircling Hudson Bay. The claim 
of the territory thus added to the 
* 'colony or province of Louisiana" 
must be found not in the proces- 
verbal as promulgated by lyaSalle, or 
the limits of Louisiana as defined by 
the grant to Crozat, but in the claim 
made by St. Lusson for France in 1671 
as well. Also it should be remembered 
that the colonial ministers of the 
French king objected to the dots de- 
fining the limits of the "colony or 
province of Louisiana" on French 
maps, because boundaries thus indi- 
cated might furnish arguments to 
foreign powers inimical to French 
claims and pretensions, (a) 

Again , when by treaty between 
Great Britain and France, Canada 

(a) Ante, paere 14. 

79 



with all its dependencies was ceded to 
Great Britain in 1763, the boundaries 
between the Hudson Bay territories 
ceded by treaty of Utrecht, 1713, and 
Louisiana remained undetermined, (a) 
By the treaty of 1763 France ceded 
"in full right Canada with all its de- 
pendencies," and Great Britain "in 
order to establish peace on solid and 
durable foundations and to remove 
forever all subjects of dispute with re- 
gard to the limits of the British and 
French territories on the continent of 
America" agreed that in future "the 
boundaries between the dominions of 
his Britanic Majesty and those of his 
most Christain Majesty in that part of 
the world shall be fixed irrevocably 
by a line drawn along the middle of 
the River Mississippi from its source 
to the River Iberville, etc." Hence, 
it is claimed as we have seen by Fal- 
coner that Louisiana onlj^ extends as 
far north as the source of the Missis- 
sippi, 47 degrees, 30 minutes north, 
and then west to the mountains, (d) 
and not to the 49th parallel as univers - 
ally understood and claimed. 

(a) See Greenhow's Oregon, p. 140. 

(*) On the Mississippi and Oregon, p. 61. 

80 



The theory, however, that the 
"colony and province of lyouisiana" 
embraced the limits defined by the 
water- shed of the Mississippi and its 
tributaries was early denied by Great 
Britain, and in the interest of her 
settlements on the Atlantic coast. 
England claimed for its settlements 
specific limits along the coasts or bays 
on which English settlements were 
formed, and an extension across the 
the entire continent to the Pacific 
Ocean, A map published in Paris in 
1757 clearly shows that the French 
fully understood the from sea -to -sea 
character of the English pretensions — 
heavy black lines running across the 
continent, showing the north and south 
limits of Virginia and other colonies, 
and that these pretensions conflicted 
with the French and Spanish claims 
to the "western sea" as the boundary 
of their possessions. This map is 
entitled "Carte des Pretentions des 
Anglois dans I'AmeriqueSeptentrion- 
ale suivant leurs Chartres tant sur les 
possessions de la France que sur celles 
81 



de I'Espagne. " (^) These conflicting 
claims led to the struggle between 
France and England in America, and 
in that struggle the doctrine of Eng- 
land for an extension indefinitely west 
across the continent was victorious — 
the right of continuity prevailed over 
the theory of the water -shed. 

By the treaty of 1763 the Missis- 
sippi, as we have seen, was made the 
permanent boundary between the 
possessions of Great Britian and 
France on this continent, and accord- 
ing to Calhoun this treaty **in effect 
extinguishes in favor of France what- 
ever claim Great Britain may have 
had to the region west of the Missis- 
sippi." 

In his reply to Packenham, Calhoun 
says that Great Britian by the treaty of 
1763 fixing the Mississippi "as an ir- 
revocable boundary between the terri- 
tories of France and Great Britain," 
thereby surrendered to France all her 
claims on this continent we.st of the 
river, including, of course, those within 
the charter limits of her three colonies 

(a) See copy of map in Winsor's Mississippi 
Basin, p. 320. 

82 



which extend to the Pacific Ocean ''on 
these united with those of France as 
the possessor of Louisiana we rest our 
claim of continuity as extending to 
that ocean without an opposing claim, 
except that of Spain, which we have 
since acquired and consequently re- 
moved by the treaty of Florida." (a) 
The purchase of lyouisiaua restored 
and vested in the United States all 
claims acquired by France, and sur- 
rendered by Great Britain under the 
treaty of 1763, to the country west of 
the Mississippi. Certain it is that 
France had the same right of contin- 
uity in virtue of the possession of 
Louisiana, and the extinguishment of 
all rights of Great Britain by that 
treaty to the whole country west of the 
Rocky Mountains and lying west of 
Louisiana, if not embraced in the 
original limits of the ''colony or pro- 
vince" as against Spain or England, 
which England had to the country 
west of the Allegheny Mountains as 
against France, with this difference, 

(a) Calhoun's Works, Vol. 5, p. 453. 
83 



that Spain had nothing^ to oppose to 
the claim of France at the time, but 
the right of discovery, (a) 

On the ground of contiguity prin- 
cipally Great Britain claimed the 
country west of the AUeghenies, en- 
forced by other considerations. (3) 
And the strongest of these considera- 
tions was, that it could not consist 
with natural law, that the English 
colonies with a population of nearly 
two millions should be confined to a 
narrow belt of land between the Alle- 
gheny Mountains and the Atlantic, 
and that the right derived from the 
discovery of the main river should be 
carried to such an extent as to allow 
the French colonies with a popula- 
tion of only 50,000 to claim the whole 
valley of the Mississippi, {c) 

So that the statement of Gallatin that 
the claims of the United States to the 
Northwest coast "dates at least from 
the time when they acquired Louis- 
iana," cannot be denied. 

(a) Calhoun's Works, Vol. 5, p. 434. 

(b) Writings of Gallatin, 3rd Vol., p. 505. 

(c) Writings of Gallatin, 3rd Vol., p. 504. 

84 



' 'It is, therefore, not at all surprising 
that France should claim the country- 
west of the Rocky Mountains (as may 
be inferred on her maps) on the same 
principle, that Great Britain had claim- 
ed and dispossessed her of the regions 
west of the Alleghenies, or that the 
United States as soon as they acquired 
the rights of France, should assert the 
same claim and take measures immedi - 
ately after to explore it with a view to 
occupation and settlement." (a) 

Great Britain for many years oppos - 
ed our claim to the Northwest bound - 
ary in its entirety as far south as the 
mouth of the Columbia. It is sup- 
posed that Sir Alexander McKenzie, 
a man of great ability, great enterprise 
and wonderful energy inspired the 
English Government with the thought 
to claim the whole west coast of Ameri - 
ca as far south as the Columbia, (d) 
In 1793 McKenzie made his celebrated 
march of exploration across the Rocky 
Mountains, but missed the sources of 
the Columbia and fell upon the 

(a) Calhoun's Works, Vol. 5. p. 435. 
id) Benton's Thirty Years, Vol. 1, p. 54. 

85 



Tacoutche Tesse, a north branch of 
the Frazier River, and following these 
waters in their course finally reached 
the Pacific Ocean five hundred miles 
north of the Columbia and also north 
of the 49th degree north latitude. It 
was not, however, until 1818 that the 
British Government for the first time 
made known the grounds upon which 
its pretensions to the northwest coast 
rested, namely, the voyage of Capt. 
Cook, who in 1776 was directed to 
explore the coast of New Albion, a 
name which had been bestowed by 
Drake upon this coast when he sailed 
along it with one of his flying pirati- 
cal squadrons. It was claimed that 
Cook's voyage gave Great Britain a 
right from discovery, as also pur- 
chases of land made by the English 
from the natives prior to the Ameri- 
can Revolution. No formal pro- 
position was made as to boundary, 
but it was intimated that the Colum- 
bia River was the most convenient 
boundary, (a) To this proposition 

(a) Letters from Messrs. Gallatin and Rush, Oct. 
28, H20; Benton's Thirty Years, Vol. 1, p. 51. 

86 



our representatives would not assent, 
but it was agreed that the country on 
the northwest coast claimed by either 
party should without prejudice to the 
claims of either party for a limited 
time be left open for the purpose of 
trade to the inhabitants of both coun- 
tries, and this agreement was em- 
bodied in the convention of 1818. 
Afterwards in 1827 this agreement was 
extended indefinitely, but to be can- 
celled upon twelve months' notice by 
either party. 

In subsequent negotiations British 
agents further rested their claim upon 
the discovery of McKenzie, the seizure 
of Astoria during the war of 1812, the 
Nootka Sound treaty of 1790. Of the 
grounds thus advanced not one could 
be considered tenable. Cook never 
saw, much less took possession of the 
northwest coast. The Indians from 
whom British subjects were said to 
have purchased prior to the Revolu- 
tion were not even named and the 
transaction was in no wise identified, 
only that it took place at the mouth 
of the Columbia. McKenzie did not 
87 



discover the Columbia, but the Frazier 
River five hundred miles north. The 
seizure of Astoria gave no title by 
conquest. In addition, Astoria was 
at the close of the war restored, and 
the treaty of Nootka of 1 790 was in no 
wise a treaty of acquisition, (a) 

After great agitation for many years, 
notice was finally given by the United 
States to abrogate the convention of 
1827, and in 1846 a treaty was made 
and ratified fixing the 49th degree 
parallel north latitude as the boundary 
line between the United States and 
England, deflecting, however, through 
the Straits of Fuca instead of dividing 
Vancouver Island, this being the 
boundary which for a period of forty 
years had been tendered to the Govern - 
ment of Great Britain, in 1807 by 
Jefferson; in 1824 by Monroe; in 1826 
by Adams ; in 1842 by Tyler and which 
in 1845 finally was accepted when pre- 
sented by Polk. "Thus the ancient 
boundary fixed by the treaty of Utrecht 
between England and France was 
finally adopted," a boundary charac- 

(a) Benton's Thirty Years, Vol. 1, p. 51. 

ss 
LofC. 



terized by Benton as ''wonderfully 
adapted to the natural divisions of the 
country, separating the two systems 
of water, those of the Columbia and 
Frazier Rivers as natural and com- 
modiously on the west of the moun- 
tains as it parted on the east side of 
the same mountains the two systems 
of water which belonged on the one 
hand to the Gulf of Mexico, and on 
the other to the Hudson Bay or Arctic 
Ocean. That at the treaty of Utrecht 
with but imperfect geographical 
knowledge, such a line so long and 
so straight and so adapted to the rights 
of all parties should have been select- 
ed as the boundary line of Louisiana 
on the north is one of the marvels of 
history. ' ' 

Although manifest that the I^ouis - 
iana Purchase secured us the coast, 
we find that some would rest the title 
of the United States on the so-called 
discovery of the Columbia by Capt. 
Gray. No doubt Gray's discovery, 
or re -discovery, of the Columbia was 
an incident in the Oregon controversy, 
but the mouth of the Columbia was 
89 



discovered by Heceta prior to Gray, 
and the coast taken possession of in 
the name of Spain. Before Gray en- 
tered the river the entire coast had 
been traced, and Gray neither dis- 
covered it for the first time nor had 
authority to take possession of it. In 
the discovery he had been anticipated 
by Heceta. Tlie re -discovery by Capt. 
Gray undoubtedly added strength 
to the claim of the United States, but 
it was the lyouisiana Purchase that 
gave us title to the territory and made 
Gray's entrance and voyage up the 
Columbia important as well as the fact 
that he gave the river the name of his 
ship "Columbia." 

The expedition of I^ewis and Clark, 
without the possession of the lyouisi- 
ana hinterland, would have given the 
world some valuable geographical and 
topographical information, but in no 
wise would have given title to the 
territory to the United States. The 
expedition was sent out to secure trade 
and commerce, and it is manifest that 
the territory as far as the Pacific was 
considered by Jefferson and his con- 
90 



temporaries as an unexplored portion of 
lyouisiana. The expedition of I,ewis 
and Clark "brought to the knowledge 
of the world this great river, the 
greatest by far on the western side of 
the continent. * * * It clearly en- 
titled us to the claim of priority of 
discovery as to its head branches and 
the exploration of the river and 
the region through which it passes, 
as the voyage of Capt. Gray and the 
Spanish navigator Heceta, entitled us 
to priority in reference to its mouth 
and the entrance into its channel. " («) 

The claim of the United States to 
the possession of the territory west of 
the Rocky Mountains between the 
42 nd and 49th parallels of latitude 
was by Gallatin well and ably placed 
on the ground : 

First — Of the acquisition by the 
United States of the titles of France 
through the L^ouisiana treaty, and the 
titles of Spain through the Florida 
treaty. 

Second — The discovery of the 
mouth of the Columbia. The first 

(o) Calhoun's Works, Vol. 5, p. 430. 
91 



exploration of the country through 
which that river flows, and the estab- 
lishments of the first settlements in 
those countries by American citizens. 
The virtual recognition of the titles of 
the United States by the British gov- 
ernment in the restitution agreeable 
to the first article of the treaty of 
Ghent, of the post near the mouth of 
the Columbia which had been taken 
during the war ; and 

Lastly — Upon the ground of con- 
tiguity, which would give the United 
States a stronger right to those terri- 
tories than could be advanced by any 
other power, a doctrine always main- 
tained by Great Britain from the 
period of her earliest attempts at 
colonization in America, as clearly 
proved by her charters in which the 
whole breadth of the continent be- 
tween certain parallels of latitude es- 
tablished at points on the borders of 
the Atlantic. ''If," says Mr. Galla- 
tin, "some trading factories on the 
shores of Hudson Bay have been con- 
sidered by Great Britain as giving an 
exclusive right of occupancy as far as 
92 



the Rocky Mountains, if the infant 
settlement on the more southern At- 
lantic justified a claim thence to the 
South Seas, and which was actually- 
enforced to the Mississippi, that of 
the millions already within reach of 
those seas cannot consistently be 
rejected." (a) 

General Walker, director of the 10th 
census, says: "The discovery and 
exploration of the Columbia River by 
Capt. Gray, an American, the pur- 
chase of Ivouisiana and all that be- 
longed to it as far as the Pacific, from 
the French in 1803, their claim being 
the next best to that of Spain, the ex- 
ploration of the Columbia by Lewis 
and Clark, and the treaty of limits 
concluded between Spain and the 
United States in 1819, by which the 
territory north of the 42nd degree 
north latitude was expressly declared 
to belong to us, constitute our title to 
these regions." (d) 

(a) Greenhow's Oregon, p. 348. Our well founded 
claim grounded on continuity has greatly been 
strengthened by the rapid increase of population in 
the Mississippi Valley. Calhoun's Works, Vol. 5, 
page 439. 

(b) Vol, 9, 10th Census, p. 23. 

93 



In this paragraph our title to the 
northwest coast is correctly but con- 
fusedly stated. Our title primarily 
rested on the Louisiana Purchase. 
The United States "acquired from 
France by treaty of Louisiana import- 
ant and substantial claims to the terri- 
tory" on the northwest coast west of 
the Rocky Mountains, (a) 

It is certain that by the purchase of 
Louisiana the United States first be- 
came a power on the Pacific Ocean. 
Gray's re-discover3^ of the Columbia 
was made valuable by the Louisiana 
Purchase. Without that purchase his 
entrance into the Columbia and navi- 
gation of that river would have given 
us no rights. 

The discoveries of Spain while in 
possession of Louisiana clearly inured 
to the benefit of France, wherever 
such explorations enlarged the limits 
of the "province or colony of Louisi- 
ana," or made the limits and bound- 
aries of that colony more certain and 
definite. And the voyages and dis- 
coveries of Perez and of Heceta en- 

(a) Calhoun's Works, Vol. 5, p. 554. 
94 



larged and made more certain those 
limits and must be considered as en- 
uring to the benefit of the "colony or 
province." 

But by the treaty of 1818 all the ' 
rights of Spain north of the 42nd par- 
allel were granted to us, thus making ' 
absolutely certain the boundaries of ' 
the Louisiana Purchase on the south ' 
to the Pacific Ocean. 

The exedition of Lewis and Clark 
was sent out to explore the unex- 
plored regions of the Louisiana Pur- 
chase, and when the exploring party 
reached the western ocean, erected 
the rude Fort Clatsop at the mouth of 
the Columbia and raised the flag of the 
United States, it was notice to all the 
world that we had taken possession 
of the farthest limits of the Louisiana 
Purchase, and that a new power was 
established on the shores of the Pacific, 
for no one can contend that this ex- 
pedition without the purchase of the 
"colony or province of Louisiana" 
could or would have resulted in the 
acquisition of territorial rights. 

"When this expedition started out 
95 



on its celebrated march," says the 
late Dr. Elliott Cones, who has so well 
edited and annotated the narrative of 
this great expedition, ''Louisiana was 
all that country which was ceded by 
Spain to France and by the latter to 
the United States. It was practically 
the United States west of the Missis- 
sippi. A map of the period just be- 
fore the cession would show : United 
States east of the Mississippi ; British 
possessions north of the 49th degree 
and along the Great Lakes, etc. ; 
Spanish possessions on the southwest 
up to about the 38th degree at the 
point of the farthest northward ex- 
tension, the rCvSt being Louisiana. A 
straight line from the Straits of Fuca 
on the Pacific coast to the mouth of 
the Mississippi River would run 
through 'Louisiana' from the north- 
west to the southeast. Such was the 
vast area acquired by the United 
States through Jefferson's magnifi- 
cent stroke." (a) 

So whatever the different argu- 
ments that may at this late day be 

(a) Coues' Edition Lewis and Clark's Expedition, 
Vol. 1, p. XXXIII. 

96 



brought forward, principally borrowed 
from British sources, it is clear that 
all of Montana and the states of 
Idaho, Oregon and Washington should 
be placed in the galaxy of the Louisi- 
ana Purchase states. 




97 



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